CHAPTER LXXI_A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2) During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era

CECCO D’ASCOLI

Reasons for his celebrity--An astrologer burned by the

Inquisition--Works by Cecco to be considered here--Other

sources--The sentence by the Inquisition--Villani’s

account--The later manuscripts--Astrology for cities--The

fate of individuals--Influence of stars and signs--How mind

and soul are affected--The stars and dreams--Astrological

images--Did Cecco deny human free will?--Founders of

new religions said to be born of incubi and succubi at

astrological periods--Birth of Christ and darkness during

His passion were both miraculous--Christian qualification of

Albumasar--Cecco’s astrology not the most extreme--Charge

that he taught astrological necromancy--His attitude

toward magic--His frequent citation of books of magic and

necromancy--Necromancy employs evil spirits--Cecco unduly

curious rather than heretical in this regard--Was his

death due to personal enemies?--His execution of little

significance.

[Sidenote: Reasons for his celebrity.]

The name of Cecco d’Ascoli has perhaps received more attention and is

better known than the writings and actual achievements of its owner

deserve. If so, this is mainly for two reasons; first, that his poem

_l’Acerba_ has been associated with the study of Dante; second, that he

was condemned by the Inquisition and burned at the stake in Florence in

1327. Doubtless Cecco should receive some attention in the histories

both of literature and science as one who was both an Italian poet

and a Latin teacher and writer of astronomy and astrology. But his

works and personality would perhaps have been long since forgotten

but for the fact that his learned poem, _l’Acerba_, was taken to be

an invidious parody of Dante’s _Divine Comedy_, and that both it and

his astrological work in Latin were ordered to be burned at the same

time with himself, while all persons retaining copies of them were to

be excommunicated. Recently, it is true, it has been held that Cecco

imitated Dante out of admiration for him and not from any desire

to cast aspersion upon the _Divine Comedy_,[2950] but in any case

their names have long been coupled. As for the condemnation by the

Inquisition, its chief effect seems to have been to raise a rather

ordinary astrologer to the position of a martyr for science and a

reproach to the medieval church. Many apologies for and eulogies of

Cecco have been penned through the centuries since, while a few writers

have tried to justify the action of the Inquisition, to discredit

Cecco, and to question his scientific reputation.[2951] Certainly the

condemnation by the Inquisition seems to have advertised rather than

repressed his writings, since not only has the poem _l’Acerba_ survived

but also two works on astrology. Of these three the two that the

Inquisition probably meant to forbid were both in print before 1500 and

the Protestant Revolt. The third, which the Inquisitors seem to have

overlooked, was also neglected by publishers until the present century.

[Sidenote: An astrologer burned by the Inquisition.]

Hitherto in our survey of medieval learning, more particularly of the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we have found little or no evidence

in support of the old view, or rather assumption, that every medieval

scientist was persecuted by the church. Signs of a theological party

hostile to the growing interest in natural science we have seen, but

much more evidence of this growing interest itself, and that too among

bishops, friars, Franciscan as well as Dominican, and even popes. We

have seen that the scientific attitude of William of Conches prevailed

in the long run, that it is very doubtful if Roger Bacon was in any

sense persecuted by the church for devotion to natural science,

and that Peter of Abano did not have to die in order to escape the

Inquisition but that it had to wait until after his death before it

could do him any harm. But now in Cecco d’Ascoli we come at last, and

it is not until the fourteenth century, to a well authenticated case of

an astrologer of some learning being put to death through the agency

of the Inquisition. This makes his writings the more important for us

to note, although we do not find their contents such as to entitle him

to any high rank as a natural scientist.

[Sidenote: Works by Cecco to be considered here.]

It is hard to see any reason for the condemnation of _l’Acerba_ by the

Inquisition except that it was written by Cecco. Its superstition is so

slight as not to call for notice here, nor is its natural science more

remarkable than that of other vernacular poems such as the _Romance

of the Rose_. Our discussion will center about his two extant Latin

works which are in the form of commentaries upon the _Sphere_ of

Sacrobosco[2952] and the _Principia_ of Alcabitius.[2953] Both seem to

be in the form of class-room lectures and were presumably delivered

by Cecco at Bologna. As we shall see, it is reasonably certain that

the Latin work condemned by the Inquisition was the commentary on the

Sphere and not that on Alcabitius, although why the latter should be

overlooked when the innocuous _l’Acerba_ was condemned is difficult

to explain except by the usual ignorance and stupidity of censors and

persecutors. It is unlikely that either of the Latin works has been

altered from Cecco’s original either by himself or others in order to

render it less objectionable from the theological point of view, after

the Inquisition had condemned his book on astrology _in toto_. It would

be more likely if anything to be touched up in the other direction. In

any case these two works are what we have from Cecco’s pen to show what

were the views of an astrologer condemned by the Inquisition.

[Sidenote: Other sources.]

We have, it is true, some documentary evidence other than Cecco’s own

works to show what his views were and why he was condemned by the

Inquisition, but it is not very satisfactory. Boffito, who in recent

times has made the most specialized study of Cecco d’Ascoli and his

works, editing the commentary on Alcabitius hitherto unprinted and

investigating the problem, “Why was the astrologer Cecco d’Ascoli

condemned to be burned?”[2954] accepts outside of Cecco’s own writings

only two sources as at all original and reliable, namely, the account

in Giovanni Villani’s contemporary chronicle[2955] and a Latin

manuscript in the Riccardian library at Florence[2956] which contains a

summary of the inquisitorial sentence against Cecco. This manuscript is

on paper and I should say is certainly not earlier than the fifteenth

century. Boffito views with suspicion the longer sentence in Italian

which was reproduced by Cantù[2957] and made use of in Lea’s _History

of the Inquisition_,[2958] since it is not found earlier than in a

manuscript of the seventeenth century.

[Sidenote: The sentence by the Inquisition.]

According to the Riccardian manuscript Cecco’s astrology was the

reason, or at least the pretext, for his condemnation, but it does

not make clear just what was found objectionable in his astrological

teaching. It brings out further, however, that he was not put to death

for a first offense but was burned at Florence as a relapsed heretic

on the ground that he had violated the terms of a previous sentence

imposed upon him by the inquisitor at Bologna. In 1324 the Bolognese

inquisitor had found Cecco guilty of improper utterances concerning

the Catholic Faith and had imposed upon him a penance of fifteen days

of confession, daily recital of thirty Paternosters and as many Ave

Marias, occasional fasting for a year, and the hearing every Sabbath

of a sermon by the friars. He furthermore took from Cecco “all his

astrological books, great and small,” forbade him ever again to teach

astrology at Bologna or elsewhere, publicly or privately, deprived him

indefinitely of his professorial chair and doctor’s degree, and fined

him seventy pounds Bolognese. Taken altogether, this sentence, while

it did not condemn Cecco to death, would seem to have deprived him

rather effectually of future means of livelihood. Three years later the

inquisitor at Florence received the account of the foregoing process

against Cecco at Bologna, summoned him before himself, pronounced him

a heretic, and handed him over to the secular arm to be burned at

the stake. This part of the sentence was duly executed by the ducal

_Vicarius_, Lord Jacob of Brescia. It was further decreed that Cecco’s

astrological book in Latin and his poem _l’Acerba_ in Italian should

be burned and that all persons retaining copies of them should be

excommunicated.

[Sidenote: Villani’s account.]

Villani adds a number of further details. He states that it was the

_Commentary on the Sphere_ which had caused Cecco’s condemnation at

Bologna, that he had been forbidden to make further use of it, and

that at Florence it was charged that he had violated this prohibition.

But Cecco denied this and attributed his arrest at Florence to the

hostility of a Friar Minor who was both bishop of Aversa and chancellor

to Charles of Calabria, who was at that time duke of Florence and whose

astrologer Cecco seems to have become after leaving Bologna. In this

new position, Villani says, Cecco had made many true predictions of

political events, but although a great astrologer he was a vain man and

of worldly life. The friar-bishop-chancellor regarded Cecco’s presence

at Florence as court astrologer as an abomination. Villani, however,

like Cecco himself, does not appear to regard his practicing astrology

at Florence as necessarily a violation of the decree of the inquisitor

at Bologna; but if the Riccardian manuscript correctly reproduces the

Bologna sentence, Cecco would certainly seem to have violated it.

Villani volunteers more information than the Riccardian manuscript as

to the respects in which Cecco’s teaching or practice of astrology

was found objectionable. He makes the general assertion, which is too

vague to be of much value, that Cecco was too bold in exercising his

science in things prohibited and untrue, “since the influence of the

stars does not constrain of necessity” nor against human free will and

divine prescience. Villani, indeed, perhaps added this qualification,

after having stated that Cecco made many true political predictions, in

order to save himself from possible censure. But he more specifically

states that Cecco ascribed the force of necessity to the stars; that

in his treatise on the _Sphere_ he asserted that there were evil

spirits generated in the sky who could be coerced by incantations under

certain constellations to perform many marvels; and that he taught

that Christ came to earth in accordance with the will of God and with

the principles of astrology, and ought from his nativity to live with

His disciples _come poltrone_ and to die the death that He did, while

Antichrist would come according to the courses of the planets in rich

raiment and power. Cecco also, Villani vaguely adds, taught “many other

idle things and contrary to the Faith.”

[Sidenote: The later manuscripts.]

The later manuscripts incorporate these charges of Villani in the

inquisitorial sentence against Cecco, using suspiciously similar

wording in the passage concerning Christ and Antichrist, and charging

that Cecco has taught his work on the _Sphere_ in the schools contrary

to his promise and oath. These manuscripts further assert that Cecco

has confessed to teaching publicly that men born under certain

constellations must necessarily be rich or poor or decapitated, that

God would not change the course of nature, and that in the fourth and

eighth sections[2959] of his _Commentary on the Sphere_ he said that

under certain constellations happy divine men would be born like Moses,

Hermes, Merlin, and Simon Magus. Like Villani the later manuscripts

mention Cecco’s political predictions at Florence and state that he

had prophesied concerning “the Bavarian.”[2960] They also mention

the stress laid by Cecco upon the importance of the constellations

that cities are founded under. Such of the statements of these late

manuscripts[2961] concerning Cecco’s astrological teachings as are not

found in Villani will be found to rest upon certain passages in his

own works or upon a misapprehension of them.[2962] They also mention

his _Commentary on Alcabitius_, whereas the older form of the sentence

condemns only one Latin book on astrology by him. Another suspicious

circumstance about the longer form of inquisitorial sentence preserved

in these late manuscripts is that the Inquisition is represented as

itself condemning Cecco to death[2963] instead of handing him over to

the secular arm.

[Sidenote: Astrology for cities.]

Let us next turn to Cecco’s two commentaries in Latin and see what

foundation there is in them for the astrological teachings ascribed to

him by Villani and the longer form of inquisitorial sentence preserved

only in very late and suspiciously worded manuscripts. It is true that

Cecco emphasizes the control exercised by the stars over the fate

of cities. The laying of the first stone of a city is a moment as

influential over all its future history as is the date of conception in

the case of an individual. Romans and Tuscans are so corrupt because of

the ascendancy of Venus over them, the Lombards are scientific through

the influence of Mercury.[2964] If cities are to endure, they should be

built under the fixed signs.[2965] It is best for a man to live in a

city with the same guiding star as his own planet.[2966]

[Sidenote: The fate of individuals.]

In the notes which I took on the astrological statements in Cecco’s

commentaries there seems to be no single direct assertion that

under certain constellations men _must necessarily_ be rich or poor

or decapitated. Cecco does tell his students, however, “You ought

to know another thing, that when Jupiter is in the signs of Mars,

forsooth Aries or Scorpion, the person born will be bound with the

girdle of poverty, infamous, and injured by the powerful.”[2967] The

word “decapitated” perhaps is reminiscent of an anecdote which Cecco

tells in discussing the fulfilment of dreams and their dependence on

the constellations. A certain malefactor went to a meadow with his

associates with a scythe to cut down grass and saw beetles rolling up

dung in the road. This reminded him of a dream which he had had the

night before that these beetles would decapitate him, and he started

in to kill them. But as he struck at them with the handle of the

scythe, the blade which was over his own neck cut off his head. “And

the moon was in Taurus in conjunction with the fixed star which is

called Aldebaran; such is the story told me by my master whom may God

pardon.”[2968] This conjunction, however, would seem to have been that

prevailing when the malefactor had his dream and not the constellation

under which he was born. Cecco in another passage, however, not only

cites Zael to the effect that a horoscope when Mars is lord of the

ascendant and in a favorable angle of the sky bestows power and dignity

along with impiety and the greatest cruelty, and, unless he is regarded

by some favorable planet, will cause the possessor of the horoscope

to lose his power soon; but Cecco also adduces the recent tyrant of

Ascoli, John Venibene, as a specific example who ruled for three years

very cruelly and then was expelled and died abroad.[2969] In the case,

on the other hand, of a constellation under which are born lords of the

whole earth, such as emperors, kings, and princes, Cecco warns that the

sons born to peasants in this constellation will not become kings but

simply leaders among men of their class, “since the intractability of

the material weakens the celestial force” and “the vices and virtues

of the parents are transmitted to their heirs.”[2970] Elsewhere he

states that certain planets called superior are especially appropriated

to kings, nobles, and magistrates, while the inferior planets signify

concerning the populace.[2971]

[Sidenote: Influence of stars and signs.]

Cecco grants that the celestial bodies are inanimate but holds that

by virtue of their substances and the mediation of the intelligences

moving them they “have properties in different parts of the sky in

which they are said to rejoice and sadden effectively in us, that is,

by disposing us to good and to evil.”[2972] Cecco believes that each

herb has its appropriate planet and sign, and that doctors should be

careful to note the positions of planets in administering herbs.[2973]

The parts of the human body and regions of the globe he also parcels

out among the signs.[2974] In connection with the common topic of the

influence of the stars upon the formation of the child in the womb he

makes the less common observation that sometimes the influence of the

stars is too strong, as is seen in the case of infants who talk when

only two months old or have marvelous discretion beyond their years--or

rather, months--and die young.[2975]

[Sidenote: How mind and soul are affected]

The heavens influence the human mind as well as body, therefore.

The stars alter the elements, through these our bodies, and through

these our souls.[2976] Certain signs of the zodiac are called human

or rational “because they dispose man to reason” and “he will possess

eloquence mingled with reason.” A person who is born under one of the

vicious and tortuous signs, namely, the ram, crab, bull, scorpion, and

goat, will have a tortuous and vicious disposition, plotting evil and

detracting from others, such a person as the physician Gualfridinus, by

which name, as Boffito has already suggested, Dino del Garbo, the noted

medical writer of Florence, is probably indicated. When the moon is in

one of the common signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, or Pisces, persons

who make advances to you are liable to prove fraudulent; marriages

contracted then are liable to be dissolved; if one escapes from prison,

it will be only to be retaken; but if one is accused of some crime, he

will soon be acquitted; and so on. In some signs secrets will be kept,

in others immediately revealed. When the moon is in the first _facies_

of Scorpion, all news reports are false.[2977] The influence of the

stars explains the puzzling fact, concerning which his fellow-townsmen

of Ascoli have often questioned Cecco, why a man will choose a

silly girl of low birth as his wife rather than another who is more

beautiful, noble, and intelligent. The answer is that when the stars of

two persons come into certain positions relative to each other, love

which cannot be dissolved except by death results, regardless of beauty

and social rank.[2978]

[Sidenote: The stars and dreams.]

Cecco also ascribes the prophetic quality of dreams to astrological

influence, which permits the union of the soul of the dreamer with

the superior intelligences or spirits of the sky. Such revelation is,

however, impressed upon the soul of the dreamer “under some similitude

or figure.” Dreams come true when the moon is in the fixed signs,

Taurus, Leo, Aquarius, and Scorpio; when the moon is in the common

signs, dreams are partly true and partly false. The length of time to

elapse before the dream is fulfilled can also often be determined.

Cecco says that “minds ill-constituted and false and homicidal do not

have true dreams because they are indisposed to receive the action

of the intelligences.” Robbers and homicides may, however, have true

dreams prophetic of their own deaths as in the tale of the malefactor,

the beetles, and the scythe already recounted, and in the case of a

native of Ascoli whom Cecco knew personally and “who was named Angelus

and consequently was a devil.” Dreaming when the moon was in Leo that

he would be hanged in Roman territory, he became so frightened that he

turned friar, but after two years was dismissed from the Order, went to

Viterbo, robbed a man, and was there hanged for it.[2979]

[Sidenote: Astrological images.]

Cecco alludes to astrological images twice in his commentary on the

_De principiis_ of Alcabitius. To illustrate how images work which are

made as love charms, or to gain honor, and the like, he states that if

an image for purposes of love is made in the hour of Venus when that

planet is in Pisces or in Taurus, as the tin is poured out it acquires

under the moulding influence of that constellation the due proportion

of the elements essential to produce the desired property.[2980] Later

Cecco tells us of an image which Vergil made at Naples to drive away

flies. When the second _facies_ of Aquarius is in the ascendant an

image of a fly should be engraved on the stone in a ring.[2981] In

his _Commentary on the Sphere_ Cecco even goes so far as to tell how

to construct an astronomical image which will enable one to receive

responses from demons.[2982]

[Sidenote: Did Cecco deny human free will?]

Returning to the charges made against Cecco’s astrological teaching by

Villani and the later manuscripts, especially the assertion that he

ascribed necessity to the stars, we have to note that, although many of

the astrological teachings just listed may seem to ascribe something

closely approaching to necessity to the stars, nevertheless Cecco

expressly asserted that he believed in freedom of the will. Many of the

statements from his commentaries which we have thus far presented are

cited by him from Ptolemy, Hermes, Zaël and other astrological writers,

and perhaps are not always to be taken as his own opinion, especially

when he quotes Hermes as saying, “The heavens are the cause of moral

virtues and of all.”[2983] At any rate he now informs his students

that according to “our and the true Faith” the circle of the zodiac,

“though it may be the cause of life, yet is not the cause of our will

or intellect except as a tendency (_nisi dispositive_), and so I hold

and truly believe, although other astrologers hold the contrary, saying

that all things which are generated and corrupted and renovated in

the inferior world of generation and corruption have efficient causes

in the superior world which is ungenerated and incorruptible.... That

argument I will overthrow in my glosses to the _Centiloquium_”[2984]--a

work by Cecco which seems to have been lost or never completed.

[Sidenote: Founders of new religions said to be born of incubi and

succubi at astrological periods.]

The charge that in his _Commentary on the Sphere_ Cecco said that

under certain constellations happy divine men would be born like

Moses, Hermes, Merlin, and Simon Magus, and that Christ and

Antichrist were alike under the rule of the stars, appears from the

text of the Commentary as it has reached us to be an unjust one.

Cecco, it is true, quotes Hipparchus in the book on hierarchies of

spirits to the effect that in the _coluri_, or circles whose purpose

according to Sacrobosco is to distinguish the solstice and equinox,

there are incubi and succubi by whose virtue there are born in a

major conjunction as if from the deity men who seem divine and who

establish religions in the world and work miracles. Such a man was

Merlin and such an one will be Antichrist who will be conceived by a

virgin and work many miracles.[2985] Of Antichrist Cecco promises to

say more at the close of his lecture and he there quotes a treatise

by Zoroaster on quarter-revolutions of the eighth sphere. According

to this Pseudo-Zoroaster, whenever the eighth sphere completes one

quarter of a revolution, which happens once in twelve thousand years,

there are born by the virtue of incubi and succubi men supported by

divinity who introduce new religions and by whose death even the

heaven is perturbed. At the end of twelve thousand years the Mosaic

law was terminated thus by the Christian religion, and “ours would

be terminated in this way by Antichrist.”[2986] But Cecco does not

necessarily subscribe to these statements of Hipparchus and Zoroaster.

Indeed he has already declared the art of the latter contrary to the

Christian faith and he now continues, “Whence that beast Zoroaster and

some following him say that Christ was born under the dominion of those

quarter-revolutions from the virtue of incubi and succubi, of whom I

have spoken to you above, but it seems horrible to me even to write

such words.”[2987]

[Sidenote: Birth of Christ and darkness during His passion were both

miraculous.]

Cecco goes on to affirm that “Christ our Lord” was the true son of

God who came into the glorious Virgin and was not made by the nature

of the celestial bodies. That He rather was the Maker of celestial

natures many things show us. One is that the Magi, who were superior

astrologers and acquainted with the secrets of universal nature, adored

him as king and son of God, seeing this in the star which appeared to

them with the figure of a crowned child beneath it.[2988] Cecco also

argues that the period of darkness during Christ’s passion was a true

miracle and not due to a natural eclipse, nor to the interposition of a

comet called Milex, nor to the occult virtue of the stone heliotrope.

The comet Milex is supposed to presage religious change and injury to

kings and potentates, but Cecco argues that its interposition would

not cut off the sun’s light and further that it is not found at the

altitude necessary to interpose. The stone heliotrope is green with

blood-colored drops, and when it is placed in a shell full of water in

the rays of the sun, vapors arise from it which obscure the horizon

in that city. Cecco does not dispute this occult virtue in the gem,

which is commonly called “orfanella” and which renders a man invisible

by affecting the eyes of others. But he argues that the eclipse

during Christ’s passion was universal and not confined to the city of

Jerusalem. Some say that an interposition of Venus and Mercury caused

the darkness, but Cecco affirms that this would be astronomically

impossible and in itself a miracle and subversion of natural order.

Cecco, however, adds that while miraculous, the eclipse was also in a

sense natural, since God is the First and Universal Cause and can alter

the heavens which are a secondary universal cause.[2989]

[Sidenote: Christian qualification of Albumasar.]

Cecco also pretends that where Albumasar speaks of _creatio_ as the

work of the stars, he must really mean _generatio_, since the act

of creation pertains to God alone, although generation is under the

stars.[2990] As for Albumasar’s aphorism, “If anyone asks anything

of God when the head of the dragon is in conjunction with Jupiter

and the moon in mid-sky, his prayer will be fulfilled”--which Peter

of Abano said he had tested twice with success; Cecco declares that

it is not proper to interpret this as meaning that prayers to God

will be infallibly answered in certain constellations, but that the

word _deus_ is to be taken here as indicating the king or other chief

magistrate in the state.[2991] Thus Cecco seems at considerable pains

to say nothing that might be offensive to the church, and he closes his

_Commentary on the Sphere_ with the statement that if in it or other

writings of his aught is found to criticize, he will gladly submit

it to the correction of the very holy Roman church. Possibly this

remark and others like it represent a revision of his works undertaken

after his first condemnation at Bologna. According to one of the late

manuscripts,[2992] Cecco, when summoned before the Inquisition at

Florence, claimed that his book had been corrected by the inquisitor of

Lombardy. This defense was not allowed, however, and the terms of the

sentence at Bologna would seem to preclude it. And since the sentence

given at Florence absolutely forbade anyone to possess the book, there

does not seem much reason why a revised rather than the original

version should survive.

[Sidenote: Cecco’s astrology not the most extreme.]

On the whole, then, it would be surprising if Cecco’s condemnation

were due merely or primarily to his astrological teachings. As

Tiraboschi[2993] noted nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, he

upholds human free will, though attributing to the stars a natural

inclination to vice or virtue, and holding other superstitions common

to the astrologers of his time. Tiraboschi also noted his submissive

tone to the church and was unable to see in the _Commentary on the

Sphere_ the errors which had been charged to Cecco’s account. More

than this, in a number of respects Cecco did not go as far as some of

his predecessors or subsequent writers. Christ and Antichrist had been

partially subjected to the stars by writers before him who do not seem

to have been assailed by the Inquisition for their views, and Pierre

d’Ailly, the great cardinal and reformer, went much farther in this

direction than Cecco in the next century. Peter of Abano had held views

concerning the influence of the constellations on the appearance of

new religions and on prayers to God which Cecco rejects. But all in

vain the concessions made to the Christian standpoint by Cecco at the

expense of astrological doctrine; of him alone we know surely that he

was condemned by the Inquisition, and he went to the stake.

[Sidenote: Charge that he taught astrological necromancy.]

We have not yet, however, discussed Villani’s charge that in his

_Commentary on the Sphere_ Cecco asserted that there were evil spirits

generated in the sky who could be coerced by incantations under certain

constellations to perform many marvels. Villani perhaps has reference

to the passage in which Cecco gives astronomical directions to be

followed by anyone who wishes to make an image by means of which he

may receive responses from spirits.[2994] There is indeed a good deal

of information concerning spirits in the heavens in Cecco’s commentary

on Sacrobosco’s manual, and he shows a wide acquaintance with books of

magic. We turn, therefore, from his astrology proper to his attitude to

magic and to astrological necromancy.

[Sidenote: His attitude toward magic.]

Cecco’s attitude to magic so-called is the usual one of condemnation.

He repeats that Zoroaster was “the first inventor of the magic art,”

and gives a classification of the magic arts almost identical with that

of Hugh of Saint Victor, but states that he derives it from the _Liber

de vinculo spiritus_ of Hipparchus, a book of necromancy. Cecco says

that magic is “emphatically censured by holy mother church,”[2995] and

he does not directly question or qualify this condemnation. He says

nothing of a natural magic which is harmless. His chief concern with

magic, as in the cases of Michael Scot and Peter of Abano, seems to be

to distinguish astrology from it as a reputable science, and to hold

that one can learn of the future better as well as more legitimately by

astrology.

[Sidenote: His frequent citation of books of magic and necromancy.]

The fact, however, that the church disapproves of magic and

“vituperates” it, does not restrain Cecco from frequent citation of

books of magic, such as the _Liber artis magicae_ of Apollonius,[2996]

nor from retailing to his students much information concerning

spirits in the sky and necromancy. Thus when Sacrobosco mentions the

four points of the compass, Cecco is reminded of a statement in the

_Liber de ordine intelligentiarum_ of Hipparchus that certain princes

of the demons “occupy the four parts beneath the sky. For expelled

from heaven, they occupy the air and the four elements.”[2997] When

Sacrobosco speaks of the zenith and poles in a purely astronomical

way, Cecco again quotes Hipparchus as saying, “O wonderful zenith and

godlike nature,”[2998] etc., after the manner of an invocation, and

Solomon in the _Liber de umbris idearum_ as exclaiming, “O arctic

Manes! O antarctics propelled by divinity! Why do natures so great

and noble seem to be enclosed in mineral species?” This last remark,

Cecco explains, refers to the responses given by these spirits in

metal mirrors.[2999] When Sacrobosco treats of climates, Cecco

remarks that the word may be understood necromantically as well as

astronomically. Zoroaster, the inventor of the magic art, uses the

word in the necromantic sense when he says, “For those climates are

to be marveled at, which with flesh of corpses and human blood give

responses trustworthily.” “By this,” continues Cecco, “you should

understand those four spirits of great virtue who stand _in cruciatis

locis_, that is, in east, west, north, and south, whose names are

Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon, and Egim,[3000] spirits who are of the major

hierarchy and who have under them twenty-five legions of spirits each.

Therefore because of their noble nature these seek sacrifice from human

blood and likewise from the flesh of a dead man or cat.[3001] But this

Zoroastrian art cannot be carried on without great peril, fastings,

prayers, and all things which are contrary to our Faith.”[3002]

[Sidenote: Necromancy employs evil spirits.]

This last word of warning may seem a bit belated and perhaps somewhat

perfunctory, but shows Cecco still consistent in recognizing that

magic and necromancy are contrary to the Christian religion. In other

passages he calls these spirits demons and diabolical,[3003] and

affirms with Augustine that “spirits who are outside the order of

grace” cannot truly transmute bodies, nor raise the dead, nor do any

marvels and feats of magic except those which can be accounted for by

the occult virtues of nature.[3004] And in speaking of a demon named

Floron, who was mentioned by Solomon in the _Book of the Shadows of

Ideas_, who was of the hierarchy of cherubim, who was confined in a

steel mirror by a major invocation, who knew many secrets of nature,

and who deceived King Manfred and others by ambiguous oracles in

modern times,--Cecco concludes, “So beware of these demons because

their ultimate intention is to deceive Christians to the discredit of

our Lord Jesus Christ.” Cecco tells a story of a man of Ferrara who

consulted this demon Floron as to hidden treasure and was told that he

would find enough in a certain spot to last him for the rest of his

life. He dug in the cavern indicated and uncovered only four ounces

of gold, but as an avalanche crushed him immediately afterward, the

oracle was fulfilled.[3005] Yet on the next page we find Cecco giving

the instructions already mentioned for making an astronomical image

in order to obtain responses from a spirit. And several pages further

on he cites a response of this same Floron as to the time when demons

are least liable to deceive one and when as a consequence it is best

to consult them, and again as to the divinity of Christ, of whom this

demon Floron said, “He took upon Him human flesh that all flesh through

Him might be saved.”[3006]

[Sidenote: Cecco unduly curious rather than heretical in this regard.]

Thus, much of Cecco’s work seems less a commentary upon Sacrobosco’s

text than a manual of astrological necromancy. His citations from

the books of magic and necromancy well illustrate those relations

between astronomy, magic, and necromancy to which we have before

had allusions in the writings of Albertus Magnus and elsewhere. We

remember the distinction drawn in the _Speculum astronomiae_ between

commendable works of astronomy and injurious works of necromancy,

and we wonder if the cause of Cecco’s condemnation may not have been

that instead of sticking to the field of astrology he made these

dangerous excursions into the subject of necromancy. It might well be

held that he was leading his students into temptation by the numerous

references to demons, the magic art, and astrological necromancy in

his _Commentary on the Sphere_. At the same time it must be remembered

that such pillars of the Christian Faith and learning as William of

Auvergne and Albertus Magnus had read and cited books of magic and

necromancy. Cecco’s passages concerning astrological necromancy are

almost all quotations or citations from other authors. When he speaks

in his own name it is usually to declare magic and necromancy contrary

to Christianity and to censure the passages which he has just cited.

Moreover, the notion of hierarchies of spirits, of their presence in

sky and air and elements, of their power to work marvels,--all these

were orthodox enough Christian doctrines. And Cecco does not, like

William and Albert, hint at a natural variety of magic apart from

demons which is not idolatrous and unchristian. Of indiscreet curiosity

concerning such matters and undue mention of them he might be found

guilty, but scarcely of any direct heresy so far as his extant written

works are concerned.

[Sidenote: Was Cecco’s death due to personal enemies?]

If neither Cecco’s astrology nor his citation of books of magic

and necromancy seems sufficiently extreme to account alone for his

condemnation by the Inquisition, we may perhaps find the clue in the

hypothesis of personal enemies, which has already been more than

once advanced by writers on Cecco. That he would have made bitter

personal enemies one can well imagine from the sharp personalities

in which he indulges in his works. That such personalities were not

unwelcome to the taste of that time, however, is indicated by Dante’s

frequent allusions to the recent dead in his _Inferno_. Cecco with

less discretion directed his gibes against the living. Thus he states

that the head and tail of the dragon are the intersections of circles,

and not stars forming the shape of a dragon in the sky “as a certain

physician of ours of Ascoli (?) argued together with his mother who

was as big a fool as himself.”[3007] We have already mentioned Cecco’s

insulting words concerning the physician Gualfridinus, who seems

the same as Dino del Garbo. Now while Villani tells us that Cecco

attributed his arrest at Florence to the chancellor of the duke, in

the very next chapter, in mentioning the death of Master Dino del

Garbo, whom he calls a very celebrated physician and a man learned in

natural science and philosophy, who wrote “several noble books” at the

request of King Robert of Naples, Villani adds that Dino “was a great

cause of Cecco’s death, attacking as erroneous the book from which

he had lectured at Bologna; and many said that he did this through

envy.”[3008] Padre Appiani, a Jesuit who wrote an apology for Cecco in

the seventeenth century, attributed his persecution at Bologna to the

son, Tommaso del Garbo, and that at Florence to Dino.[3009] Tiraboschi

in the eighteenth century came to the conclusion that “envy had no

small part in the condemnation of this unhappy astrologer, and that

he would not have perished so wretchedly if he had not had powerful

enemies who conspired to his ruin.”[3010] Nothing is said by Villani

of Cecco’s having offended the duke of Florence, Charles of Calabria,

and so forfeited his favor and protection, but this would seem likely,

though of course it would account only for his second sentence at

Florence.

[Sidenote: His execution of little significance.]

The condemnation of Cecco, therefore, may be a good example of the

way in which the Inquisition could be manipulated for private ends,

but it does not seem a sign of any general attack by the church and

Inquisition on astrology or on learned men who showed an interest

in occult science. The charges repeated, or invented, against Cecco

by Villani and the late manuscripts are loose and exaggerated. Why

Cecco d’Ascoli was burned at the stake is a problem that has puzzled

more than one investigator, and none of the explanations offered is

entirely satisfactory. It is, however, fairly evident that the process

against Cecco was a failure as an attempt to check his teachings and

simply advertised him and his writings. It came late in the medieval

period and apparently was not soon repeated. Everything tends to

indicate that his execution was an exceptional and sensational, but not

especially significant event. The attitudes toward astrology of Thomas

Aquinas, whom the church canonized, and of Albertus Magnus, who was

beatified, are much more important and more characteristic of medieval

ecclesiastical culture.

FOOTNOTES:

[2950] G. Castelli, _La vita e le opere di Cecco d’Ascoli_, 1892,

chapter 12.

[2951] For an account of this literature see Castelli’s opening

chapters.

The important contributions of G. Boffito will be mentioned presently.

W. St. C. Baddeley, _Cecco d’Ascoli, Poet, Astrologer, Physician_,

1894, is a worthless popular essay.

[2952] _Sphera Mundi cum tribus Commentis nuper editis videlicet

Cicchi Esculani, Francisci Capuani de Manfredonia, Iacobi Fabri

Stapulensis.... Impressum Venetiis per Simonem Papiensem dictum

Bivilaquam_, 1499. As the leaves are unnumbered in this edition, the

following references will follow the foliation of the 1518 edition,

_sphera cum commentis_, etc., which will be cited as _Sphera_.

BN 7337, 15th century, pp. 32-41, _Caeci Aesculani super sphaeram_,

seems to contain only portions of Cecco’s commentary and to omit

Sacrobosco’s text entirely.

[2953] _Il Commento di Cecco d’Ascoli all’ Alcabizzo_, edito a cura del

P. G. Boffito, 1905. This will be referred to as _Alcabizzo_.

[2954] _Studi e Documenti di Storia e Diritto, Publicazione periodice

dell’ accademia di conferenza Storico-Giuridichi, Roma_, XX (1899),

357-82, “_Perchè fu condamnato al fuoco l’astrologo Cecco d’Ascoli?_”

[2955] Muratori, _Scriptores_, tome 13, X, 39-40.

[2956] Riccard. 673 (M-I-25), fol. 111r-v, “De magistro Cecco de asculo

quare combustus sit.”

[2957] _Gli Eretici d’Italia_, Turin, 1865, I, 151.

[2958] H. C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages_,

III, 444.

Lea’s sources for his account of Cecco would seem somewhat dubious from

his own description of them, since he says, “I owe many of the above

details to a sketch of Cecco’s life in a Florentine MS which I judge

from the handwriting to be of the seventeenth century and of which the

anonymous author appears to be well informed; also to a MS copy of the

elaborate sentence, much more full than the fragments given by Lami and

Cantù.” Lea supplied no further means of identifying these MSS, but

presumably he had reference to two of the following:

Poppi 199, 18th century folio, _Vita e morte di Cecco d’Ascoli_.

Panciatichiani 117, 18th century, p. 50--“_Abiura di Cecco d’Ascoli

e sua morte seguita in Firenze l’anno 1328, con altre notizie

appartenenti alla sua vita._” _Precede una nota sul padre Accursio

Buonfantini Inquisitore, che esaminò e condannò Cecco d’Ascoli_; pp.

51-9, _Esame e condanna di Cecco d’Ascoli_, “_Al nome de Dio amen.

Noi frate Accursio ... / ... Familiari e servitori dell’ Inquisizione

e molte altre persone_”; pp. 60-3, _Memorie della vita e morte di

Cecco d’Ascoli_, “_Nella città d’ascoli nella marca fu un artigiano

assai commodo ... / ... che troppo dalla credenzia della vera fede si

allontanano_”; pp. 63-4, _Altre notizie date dal Sig. A. M. Manni,

“Maestro Cecco fu cittadino ascolano, filosofo et astrologo ... / ...

delle Virtù delle Pietre, manoscritto del sig. Alessandro Cherubini._”

Palat. 895, 17th century, carte 15, _Sentenzia contro a maestro Cecco

di maestro Simone degli Stabili da Ascoli, data in Firenze l’anno di

nostro Signore_ 1328, “_Noi frate Accursio di Firenze, dell’ ordine

de’ frati minori, per autorità appostolica Inquisitorre della eretica

malignità della prouincia de Toscana ... / ... come in Firenze è

pubblico è notorio per l’euidenza del fatto manifesto._”

Castelli, p. 42, says that the number of copies of the sentence and

relation of the death of Cecco found in the libraries of Italy is

incredible, but he mentions only two.

[2959] Cecco’s _Commentary_ is not divided into such sections in the

two editions and MS which I have seen.

[2960] “_del Bavaro_”; the illusion is presumably to the emperor, Louis

of Bavaria.

[2961] Listed above, p. 951, note 5. Panciatich. 117 is very similar to

Palat. 895, but the wording is not identical, and from fol. 56v on the

former omits much of the diffuse moralizing of the latter on how wicked

it is to pry into the future and to destroy faith in freedom of the

will, the basis of all morality (see Palat. 895, fol. 9r-v).

[2962] Such as ascribing to Cecco views which he cites from other

authors only to condemn immediately.

[2963] In Palat. 895, for instance, fol. 12v, “_Deliberarono condannare

alla morte il detto maestro Cecco_”; fol. 13v, “_lo condanniamo alla

morte come merita_.”

[2964] _Sphera_, fol. 11; BN 7337, p. 33. Cecco also uses the

inhabitants of Ferrara and Bologna to illustrate his point. Each city

or state, however, has a triple influence exerted on it by the stars,

according to its climate, its province, and the moment of its building.